England Women finished the International Women’s Rugby Series undefeated after overcoming the Black Ferns 21-29 in Rotorua on Saturday.

Former Hartpury College pupils Natasha Hunt, Amy Cokayne, Sarah Bern and Alex Matthews along with ex-University of Gloucestershire student Danielle Waterman all started.

Tries from Emily Scarratt, Abbie Scott, Lydia Thompson, Marlie Packer and Vicky Fleetwood held off a determined Black Ferns who led 14-7 after 30 minutes to give England their first away win to New Zealand since 2001.

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England kicked off proceedings with an early break from Thompson who passed out to Scarratt to put the Red Roses ahead in the third minute.

However, the Black Ferns made the most of their opportunities, coming back to score two fortuitous tries in the hands of scrum-half Kendra Cocksedge and then a Portia Woodman interception, giving the home team the advantage with the score 14-7.

England kept the pressure on and a yellow card for New Zealand captain Fiao’o Faamausili in the 35th minute allowed Abbie Scott to put down from a rolling maul to bring the scores even at half time.

The Red Roses came back out in deteriorating conditions to make the most of their number advantage with Thompson overcoming Woodman to break free into the corner for her 27th career try and third of the Series.

England kept the momentum to score a second driving maul try from a line out when Packer went over in the 55th minute. The maul continued to prove effective for England who demonstrated a highly effective set piece and control throughout the second half with Fleetwood scoring their fifth and final try.

New Zealand kept battling to the end with a Victoria Subritsky-Nafatali try coming with two minutes left on the clock after the Black Ferns pressured England’s defence.

England Women head coach Simon Middleton said: “We’ve got a clear way in which we want to play and we’ve invested a lot of time in being able to control field position as well as being able to control possession. With the weather as it was tonight, we knew what we needed to put in place.

“We’ve got some great kickers of the ball and a lot of energy on the field and that came good for us tonight.

“We’ve got a picture of where we are now. With analysis we can look at what we have to improve on but we needed to give everything tonight against the best side in the world and we’ve done that and so are rightfully very happy and very proud.”